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ABOUT

 

Africana Studies is the study, research, interpretation, and the dissemination of knowledge concerning African American, African, and Caribbean affairs and cultures. Using methodologies from the humanities, fine arts, and social sciences, Africana Studies examines the structure, organization, problems, and perspectives of Blacks in America and the African Diaspora. The academic major provides a meaningful liberal arts training for students from any racial, ethnic, or cultural background.

WMU’s Mission states: “. . .the institution should be a place for the creation of knowledge, the analysis of and debate of important issues, as well as the exploration of new ways to address critical issues confronting all human life as our world/globe shrinks and our population expands.” Africana Studies prepares students to think critically, to express themselves creatively, to respect cultural diversity, and to make independent contributions to the intellectual, cultural, and spiritual growth of the world community.

Africana Studies is first and foremost concerned with quality instruction that leads to a better understanding of the historical and contemporary dynamics of the African world. The Program exists:

 

  • to provide an excellent university education while challenging and stimulating students to contribute to the development of their communities’ cultural, aesthetic, and economic environments;

  • to generate new knowledge and research opportunities within the discipline of Africana Studies;

  • to serve the university’s external community with programming that contributes to life long education.

AFRICANA STUDIES

Western civilization has been a reliable means to understand world cultures for many generations, but the rapidly changing demography of the Americas and the world requires a more profound awareness of cultural resources by thinkers of color. As seekers after human truth, African Americanists and Africanists should test traditional assumptions about race to help students make more enlightened choices for themselves and their civilization. The primary objective of an Africana Studies curriculum, regardless of race or color, is education for positive and productive citizenship. Through the study of such disciplines as history, politics, economics, culture, literature, sociology and psychology, the program aims to engender an appreciation of diversity and emphasize the ways in which Africans, and people of African descent in the Americas, have constructed and interpreted their own lives and cultures. Upon successful completion of the program of study students (majors and minors) should have acquired the skills, knowledge, and abilities to:

 

  • conduct independent research on selected Africana topics

  • conduct power analyses of a social/civil/institutional milieu

  • write critical essays using secondary sources

  • communicate orally and in writing the histories of African-descended people

  • use technology to advance professional and personal goals

  • recognize the major contributions African-descended peoples made to the development of world civilizations

  • understand the functionality of Africana Studies at academic institutions

 

Africana Studies faculty will strive to:

 

  • provide students with an interdisciplinary understanding of the Black experience in Africa, the United States, and other areas of the Diaspora

  • foster research on African and African-American issues

  • provide conceptual frameworks to illuminate the causes and effects of Africana people's subordination and their struggle for liberation

  • prepare students to think critically, to express themselves creatively, to respect cultural diversity, and to make independent and rational judgments

  • contribute to the elimination of racism and the creation of a more equitable society by offering new knowledge and research paradigms

  • encourage shared expertise with the community and maintain a community service component that promotes special classes, symposia, forums; and contribute to the intellectual, cultural, and spiritual growth of the community

  • promote internships that allow students to integrate their academic and practical knowledge

  • reinforce the study of cultural ideals and provide a liberal education in values and wisdom

 

 

​PROJECT NARRATIVE

The purpose of the Diversity Change Initiative Grant application is to implement a systemic transformational change towards diversity, equity, and inclusion by advocating, mobilizing and campaigning for the reinstitution of the former Africana Studies Program at Western Michigan University. Our grant seeks to include the voices of students in the dialogue about diversity, inclusion and equity at WMU, especially when it comes to the implementation of multicultural curricula that speak to diverse students’ experiences. The rationale for this grant project comes from the realization that the voices of WMU students on the diversity in the curricula at this institution was not a focus of the Campus Climate Survey. Therefore, this grant project aims to give students a voice on the issue of the suspension of the Africana Studies Program.

 

Moreover, it seeks to bring together public opinions as a way to help administrators understand the importance and role that an Africana Studies Program plays in the academic experience of all WMU students in general. Research demonstrates that multicultural teaching practices enhance learning for all students, regardless of what groups they belong to (Hurtado, Milem, Clayton-Pedersen, & Allen, 1999). Classrooms that empower students by giving them an active role in learning and by validating their experiences enhance students’ sense of connection with each other (Gay, 2000). 

 

Indeed, research increasingly recognizes the importance of a sense of belonging for student success (Hausmann, Schoefield, & Woods, 2007; Walton & Cohen, 2007). Included in the WMU commitment to diversity and inclusion platform is the belief that “Our collective success in institutional diversity efforts is measured by the degree to which our University community excels with regard to enrollment of numbers for underrepresented students; retention rates for underrepresented students; graduation rates for underrepresented students; number of Senior Leadership Team members from underrepresented groups…” In that spirit, this project will mobilize support for the reinstitution of the Africana Studies program to enhance the mission of WMU as a diverse, inclusive, and globally engaged research university.

 

 

 

 

GOALS

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